<quoted text>Being gay doesn't make you evil.Why can't the church figure this out? Why don't they ask themselves, who whould Jesus exclude? Why do they need such a long list of people they're eager to exclude?<quoted text>So, this thing is supposed to be self-regulated, and the church is wondering why it doesn't work correctly?What is it, exactly, that gay people are expected to repent FOR? When I commit a crime against someone, or harm them in some way, I'm responsible for apologizing to THEM for the harm that I've caused THEM. The existence of gay people (or their happiness, or companionship) does not harm anyone (least of all an omnipotent being). They should not be ASKED to repent. What an awful idea, that a person who feels same-sex attraction should actually apologize for seeking happiness with a person of the same sex.The chuch has been wrong before. Did they withhold communion from unrepentant heliocentrists?<quoted text>If it's self-regulating, I'm sure you could.<quoted text>As dishonest as heliocentrists?Maybe they ARE full of crap. The clergy of the church don't know everything. Maybe some people, like these parents, think that the church is full of crap about SOME issues, but that they still hold a relevant position on OTHER issues that are still worth participating over (I don't, but they might).If a reasonable person knows that....A) The church has been wrong before (the solar system, Nazi support, hiding child rapists)...andB) Gay people aren't doing anything wrong or harmful...then they just might conclude that....C) The church is simply wrong again, and will eventually catch up to more moral people, like these parents.I'm with you, I wouldn't participate in such a "loving community" either. And I think that any sane grown-up should chuckle at the idea of these magic snacks. But the idea that the church would punish the PARENTS (not the ACTUAL GAY PEOPLE THEMSELVES, mind you, but only their loving parents who support them) is simply horrible.I like seeing stories like this one, and hope we see more. They provide valuable inspiration for intelligent and truly loving people to abandon organizations that practice such ritualized traditions of division and myth.

Gay people can seek happiness. If they publicly advocate a position contrary to Church teaching, they shouldn't present themselves for communion in a Catholic Church. Why would they? If they don't believe in the authority of the Church, they have no reason to believe they would be receiving grace from any of Her sacraments.

<quoted text>Gay people can seek happiness. If they publicly advocate a position contrary to Church teaching, they shouldn't present themselves for communion in a Catholic Church. Why would they? If they don't believe in the authority of the Church, they have no reason to believe they would be receiving grace from any of Her sacraments.

Any Catholic is in the position I describe above.

If you don't believe what they teach, don't go to Communion, because they teach about that also.

<quoted text>Better yet, nothing says "illogic" than someone who insists that they receive Christ in the sacrament from the same Church whose authority they turn around and question publicly.Just go somewhere else.

There is a considerable body of precedent for seeing error in the "magisterium" of the Roman curia.

<quoted text>Gay people can seek happiness. If they publicly advocate a position contrary to Church teaching, they shouldn't present themselves for communion in a Catholic Church. Why would they? If they don't believe in the authority of the Church, they have no reason to believe they would be receiving grace from any of Her sacraments.

One has to wonder, as according to ex opere operato, that if the magic works despite the spiritual condition of the celebrant, might it also not work despite the spiritual condition of the communicant.

Actually, this is one of the most silly and damaging of the heresies developed in the wake of the divine Yeshua apostasy..

<quoted text>Those darned anti-Catholic bigots, always trying to prevent Catholics from getting married, or adopting children, or serving openly in the military, or avoiding discrimination in housing and employment... it must be tough being a Catholic, with all those state bans against their lives.

Or holding public office, or living their faith, or owning a business, or speaking in public without ridonkulous straw man or ad hominem arguments.

Gay people can seek happiness. If they publicly advocate a position contrary to Church teaching, they shouldn't present themselves for communion in a Catholic Church. Why would they? If they don't believe in the authority of the Church, they have no reason to believe they would be receiving grace from any of Her sacraments.

The same goes for adulterers, and divorcees, and people who have had abortions, and people who use birth control, and people who have remarried, and on and on and on....

Yet I imagine one or two take communion, nevertheless.

As I said, maybe these parents (again, we're NOT talking about gay people, we're talking about their PARENTS who refuse to withhold their love at the church's insistence) DO believe in the authority of the church. However, having seen that the church is NOT INFALLIBLE, they might just think that they've got the right way of thinking here, and that the church simply needs to catch up.

I don't pretend to know much about the intricate rules of church rituals, and I have no idea why someone would dedicate themselves to something that promotes such division among humanity.

But this isn't about what GAY people can or should do. This is about the PARENTS of gay people, being asked to choose their church over their children.

I WOULD say that's about as low as a church can go, if this church hadn't ALREADY debased itself with its practice of hiding and protecting child rapists. It's hard to believe there are still people for whom the church's credibility isn't totally blown, after THAT mess.

Astronomy isn't/wasn't their purview.They won't change their minds on SSM.

We'll see. Maybe it will take them another 400 years to catch up to reality, but I expect it will eventually happen.

They used to burn people at the stake for holding heretical views (like astronomy, biology etc). Now, not only don't they oppose many of those views, they don't even support the practice of burning people at the stake anymore. The church changes. It may THINK it doesn't, and it may convince the easily convincible that it doesn't, but many of us see it.

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